Ricky Ponting slams Ollie Robinson over his Ashes outburst at Usman Khawaja during first Test

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has thrown new Ashes villain Ollie Robinson into the fire, labeling the bowler a ‘slow learner’ for his failed attempts to upset Usman Khawaja during the opening test at Edgbaston.

Ponting also stated that England had ‘more questions to answer than Australia’ during the second Test at Lord’s and said he would consider their talk of entertaining and playing positive cricket as important as winning.

Robinson singled out Ponting for his own sledging during the Ashes series when he defended the send-off he gave man-of-the-match Khawaja when he dismissed him in the first innings after the Aussie opener made a mammoth 141 runs.

Ponting said it was ‘water off a duck’s back’ to himself, but it came back to haunt Robinson, who couldn’t help his team send the Australians off on the final day as they recorded a memorable win.

“As I said after Ollie Robinson said what he said, this England cricket team has not played Australia and they will find out quite soon what playing Ashes cricket and playing against a good Australian cricket team is all about,” Ponting told The ICC Review- podcast.

Ollie Robinson singled out Ponting for his own sledging during the Ashes series when he defended the send-off he gave man-of-the-match Khawaja when he dismissed him in the first innings

“And if Ollie Robinson hasn’t learned that after last week, then he’s a slow learner.

“Some things he had to say — I mean, he even put my name in, which I thought was a little unusual, but to me it’s water off a duck’s back. If he sits back and thinks of me then it’s no wonder he bowled the way he did in that game if he’s worried about what I did 15 years ago.

“He’ll learn pretty quickly that if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, you want to be able to back that up with your skills.”

Ponting cited England keeper Jonny Bairstow for playing an ‘ordinary game’ at Birmingham as one of the main reasons England lost.

He said going into the second Test 1-0 in the series would be the biggest test of England’s overall attacking style.

“As far as I’m concerned, England has more questions to answer than Australia,” said Ponting.

“In terms of their style of play, but also looking at that first test, they have some selection issues that they will face as well.

“Jonny Bairstow actually played a very normal game behind the stumps, there are about four chances he went down. And on flat wickets, if they want flat wickets, you can’t afford your keeper to make mistakes.

Australian batsman Usman Khawaja had the last laugh at Ashes ‘bad guy’ Ollie Robinson as the first test at Edgbaston went down to the wire

Ponting said Robinson will learn that ‘if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series you want to be able to back that up with your skills’

“If you look at those mistakes on their own, some people might say those mistakes could have cost him the test match. Those are things they have to answer. While Australia, because they won the game, have to answer a lot less questions.’

Ponting also questioned the idea of ​​England not being results-oriented and put playing positive cricket over winning.

‘I don’t believe that for a second. This is an Ashes series, this is the biggest challenge Ben Stokes has had in his captaincy career,” Ponting noted.

‘I don’t care about that.

“I mean, if they weren’t results-oriented, they wouldn’t be disappointed at all if they lost. And it seemed to me last night, and he said it, that all his players were in pieces at the end of that game. So to me that means they care about losing, and you should too.”